<p>As a Cog Sci major, I need to take CS 61A as a major prerequisite. The problem is that I have no programming experience whatsoever.</p>
<p>Is there anything I should do to prepare for this course? A certain professor I should take it with? General comments on 61A?</p>
<p>You can look at the old course pages and read the on-line textbooks.</p>
<p>[CS61A</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/archives.html]CS61A”>CS61A Home Page)</p>
<p>Since they changed 61A to being taught in python, you don’t need to know any programming before taking it. I took it without knowing anything and the course was awesome. IMO pretty much any cs teacher is good. Even the dreaded hilfinger (although some may disagree with me)</p>
<p>I have also taken CS 61A without any prior programming experience, and I did fine. However, I did take CS 10 and some of the material has helped ease my way into 61A (especially for recursion). You might want to consider taking CS 10 first, but skipping 61A should be fine as long as you are motivated to learn.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My friend told me about the change to Python, so I was planning on getting familiar with the language this summer.</p>
<p>I’ve heard mixed reviews about CS 10. Some say it’s a waste of time because it’s all about “big ideas” and is not of real practical use when it comes to 61A. Others say it shapes your mind to think like a programmer. I’ll read more about 10 though, and thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>I’d honestly say you don’t need to prep at all for the class. I haven’t taken cs10 but I don’t think it’s necessary either. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if things were different because I took CS61A in the summer, but the started from the very bottom. By that I mean they did things like, “You can ask python ‘2+2’ and it will tell you ‘4’.”</p>